Trump’s appearance at the conference comes days after he upended a trade deal with the European Union by announcing a 10% tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland from Feb. 1 in response to those countries deploying military personnel to Greenland as Trump tries to acquire the Danish territory.  

Those duties could increase to 25% if there is no deal between the U.S. and Denmark on Greenland by June 1.

In response, European lawmakers on Wednesday suspended the approval of the trade deal.

Bernd Lange, a member of the European Parliament and the Committee on International Trade
chairman on EU-U.S. trade relations, said the tariff threats mean “there will be no possibility of compromise.”

“We will hold on the procedure … until there is clarity regarding Greenland and the threats,” he said.

Lange also said the EU was discussing the use of an anti-coercion instrument known as the tariff bazooka.

Regardless, Trump on Wednesday implored Europe, in particular, to follow the U.S.’s example regarding “how we have achieved this economic miracle” and “how we intend to raise living standards for our citizens to levels never seen before.”

“Perhaps how you, too, and the places where you come from can do much better by following what we’re doing because certain places in Europe are not even recognizable, frankly, anymore,” he said. “They’re not recognizable and we can argue about it, but there’s no argument.”

Reiterating his National Defense Strategy, previewed by Vice President JD Vance at last year’s Munich Security Conference, Trump remained adamant that he loves Europe and wants “to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction.”

“In recent decades, it became conventional wisdom in Washington and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration, and endless foreign imports,” he said. “The consensus was that so-called dirty jobs and heavy industry should be sent elsewhere, that affordable energy should be replaced by the ‘Green New Scam,’ and that countries could be propped up by importing new and entirely different populations from far-away lands.”

Trump added that economists and other experts predicted his approach would result in a global recession and “runaway inflation,” but boasted that he had “proven them wrong.”

“It’s actually just the opposite,” he said. “In one year, our agenda has produced a transformation like America has not seen in over 100 years. Instead of closing down energy plants, we’re opening them up. Instead of building ineffective, money-losing windmills, we’re taking them down and not approving any. Instead of empowering bureaucrats, we’re firing them, and they’re going out and getting jobs in the private sector for two and three times what they were making in government.”

Although Trump’s address was dominated by foreign policy amid his desire to buy Greenland for the U.S., he did use the speech to underscore some of his economic policies before this year’s midterm elections after criticisms over affordability.

Those include his proposal to prohibit institutional investors from buying single-family homes and to have Congress cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year.

TRUMP INAUGURATION A YEAR LATER: ‘AMERICA FIRST’ INTERPRETATION TESTS FRAGILE COALITION

“Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of my inauguration, and today, after 12 months back in the White House, our economy is booming,” Trump said. “Growth is exploding. Productivity is surging, investment is soaring. Incomes are rising. Inflation has been defeated.”

“People are doing very well,” he said. “They’re very happy with me.”